Friday, May 27, 2011

Even before most of us were born there has been something of a nervous reaction to someone in possession of a radio. There is just something about even your everyday AM/FM radio that causes people to question the ownership of such a device. Since technology has developed over the decades, places like Radio Shack have sold wide range radio receivers that receive frequencies from 30Khz to 1300Mhz.

Today, we have places such as AES, HRO, Scanner Master, Universal Radio, etc. where radio equipment and software can easily be bought for anyone's use.

Now, even though the United States Federal Communications Privacy Act makes it completely legal to purchase, own, and use a radio receiver that receives AM, FM, ELF (extremely low frequency). HF (high frequency), LF (low frequency), VHF, UHF, EHF and SHF frequencies that are NOT encrypted; the police and prosecutors in all 50 states are crying foul. FCC Opinion & Order PR91-36 exempts Licensed Amateur Radio Operators from local, state level, and federal level restrictions, however, police and prosecutors usually do not know about this piece of law.

The problem with the U.S. Communications Privacy Act is that it is not really clear as to whether or not it overrides or even enjoins the individual states from restricting the purchase, possession, or use of radio receivers of any sort.

In this day and age of advanced technology the definition of what constitutes a prohibited radio receiver under some state's laws has come under question and scrutiny. In the first link below, we find that police and prosecutors are now taking a hard nosed approach towards cell phones with installed software applications that link such phone to internet connected, streaming radio receivers that stream public safety radio traffic to the end user.

This link below at Radio Reference takes us to an incident in which a robbery offender was arrested in Indiana and charged with possession of a radio receiver because he had a cell phone app installed and it was discovered that the offender may have used it in the commission of his crime. The disussion focuses on whether or not the cell phone with the app installed meets Indiana's definition of a prohibited radio receiver not for use in a person's home and the technical definition of a radio receiver in context of what Indiana's law states. You'll see that there are differing opinions.

The scary part of these police and prosecutors taking the stance they take is that they are intent on using "Obstruction Of Justice" charges if and when the state law of any state is silent on radio receivers. What's even more scarier is that if they lose their case on the technical definition of what a radio receiver is, they want to use the obstruction charge in its place if and when they get someone who has either a cell phone with an app installed or in actual possession of a radio receiver.

A question now exists about if a person can be charged with obstruction simply for possession of a cell phone with a streaming public safety radio receiver application installed or in actual possession of a radio receiver even IF they did not use such in furtherance of a crime in any given state. Another question now exists in the eyes of police and prosecutors about using this law to circumnavigate PR91-36.

Shortwave America will be speaking with police and prosecutors in as many states as possible to ascertain each state's position on the possession and use of radio receivers, and whether or not they think law abiding persons who simply want to have use of such to keep themselves and their families safe should be arrested and if they really want the courts to get involved. The ARRL will also be sought for their opinion.

The issue here for law abiding citizens and licensed radio amateurs is one in which they should indeed have such a right to listen in to a system that is not encrypted for their own safety, it DOES help the safety minded and police or other emergency responders in that people will be warned by such radio traffic to stay away from these scenes and the affected areas...it actually helps responders when people know to stay clear instead of innocently wandering in to or driving into an affected emergency response area.

One area of civil liberties that needs to be examined is this attitude (even if it is a farce for political purposes and political public image) that everyone is a criminal until proven otherwise, and that every is guilty until proven innocent simply because of the mentality that anyone can do anything at anytime at any place.....the old "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, did it really make a sound?" approach.

What police, prosecutors, and the courts don't realize is that if they operate this way, they create distrust between themselves and the communities they serve and inherently violate the rights of the masses based on unfounded paranoia. This is a fact, not an opinion. While there is no constitutional right to listen to a radio system, it does become an issue of the free exchange of information between the government and its people since everything our public safety responders and our courts do including their radio communications are a matter of pubic record.

You'll notice in every state's FOIA, any person with a legitimate interest can apply for these recordings. One problem with that becomes one of if we the people want to trust that tapes of radio comms have not been altered, sanitized, or otherwise tampered with by the government agency being petitioned.

For now, it would be advisable to only use radio equipment in your home, only use mobile phone scanner apps in your home, and if you have a laptop computer....do not take it in public if you have ANY type of radio software installed. Those who are radio amateurs may want to make sure they do not even have Echolink or other amateur radio software installed on any mobile phones or laptop computers until we have a SCOTUS ruling. The potential to be charged with obstruction of justice or other crimes for your radio applications or actual radio equipment is simply too high.

The whole attitude of the radio community has always been and still remains in this day that we use our radio knowledge, our radio equipment, and radio software LEGALLY and that we always give consideration to the social and legal environment because discretion is the better part of valor.

Yesterday, the folks at Media Network Plus modernized their blog and put up new content. According to the blog, new content will be coming soon and people should check back soon. Media Network Plus is made up of a team of people, the main personalities being of course, Keith Perron and Paulette MacQuarrie.

Dheera Sujan brings to the table, her experience as a member of Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Dheera's program, "Hear The World" started on April 3rd, 2011. Hear The World has an archive of eight shows, all of them focusing on the enjoyment of the art of world music.

Dheera visits various Dutch world music venues to produce this show. Her May 21st show brings us music from the Muslim Soufi tradition, songs of struggle from Africa in the Western Sahara, a debut premier by two artists from India who hit the music scene in 2010 who have a new CD available, and finally a musical taste of Brazil.

"For 24 hours, Cruzan's fate was unknown. Pirate hobbyists who tracked the path of the storm reported that it had passed very close to Cruzan's home. There was much concern for the safety of Cruzan and his loved ones."

Bob has been reporting on Switzerland for more than thirty two years now. Bob has been a distinct voice on the air, sharing his expertise about Switzerland starting with travel and then going on to share the culture, languages, and overall richness of this great country and its people.

The May 21st episode of "Switzerland In Sound" comes to us from the East side of Switzerland, close to Italy just on the South border. Since the Summer months are almost here, Shortwave America thought it would be worth talking about the great work Bob has been doing.

Switzerland In Sound does an awesome job of giving every listener a virtual tour of each place Bob visits, painting pictures in the mind of absolute beauty that give way to pleasant dreams for anyone who looks forward to traveling.

In this episode, Bob speaks and tours with Gabriella. Gabriella is the Director Of The Nature Biosphere, in the Valley Of The Minster. Your tour starts in the Cemetery, and the Covent of St. John's Church. After this visit, Gabriella shows Bob a local restaurant and explains the local tastes. The scenery changes from the restaurant to a local bio - production plant where natural products are made. We are then whisked away to a textile manufacturer where original hand looms are still used, and Mrs. Oswald is working on a product in the middle of the Village of Santa Maria.

The discredited leader and false prophet at Family Radio, Harold Camping, has left Family Radio.Story here

The Neo Club Press presents the story in Spanish, so here is an English translation presented courtesy of Glenn Hauser at the DXLD forum with credit also given to the Neo Press Club and IB Times:

Harold Camping Leaves Family Radio

Monday May 23, 2011 19:24
Neo Press Club

Camping, caught in Alameda (IB Times) [caption]

The evangelist Harold Camping, who predicted that on Saturday May 21 would begin the Final Judgement and / or the end of the world, did not show up on Monday at his job, leaving the Family Radio Network to its own fate.

The international project manager of Family Radio, Matt Tutera, told a correspondent for The Christian Post that Camping was expected on Monday at the offices of Family Radio, but he did not appear.

Tutera, visibly angry, said that Camping had made a "mess" of the situation.

As early as Sunday, the failed prophet was surprised at the home of a relative, in the California town of Alameda, by reporters from The San Francisco Chronicle and IB Times, but declined to provide say anything, alleging that he had to "meditate ".

Camping, additionally, has stopped answering his phone.

According to Ricardo Becerra, an expert on cults and sects, after such failed predictions, "there is a risk that disappointed people even commit suicide after being on the street or losing all their belongings."

Precisely, it was learned today that a mother in Los Angeles, California, attempted suicide and to kill her children after the "second coming" prophesied by Camping was not fulfilled.

This Christian Post mentioned above also has a lot of stories about Camping and what may happen next, such as:

Shortwave America would like to take this opportunity to ask anyone in the audience who may hold a position in Law Enforcement to consider arresting Camping for the harm that has come to the innocent children mentioned in this article, as well as anyone else who was caused harm as a result of his irresponsible use of the airwaves to propagate panic.

John Poet bring us news from televisionbroadcast.com stating that the United States FCC has been operating an active crack down on unlicensed radio operations, and fines have been issued...HUGE FINES!! The most troubling violation is "Inadequate Record Keeping". If hams aren't required to keep records and hold most of the radio spectrum for their operations, being allowed to broadcast things like "Amateur Radio Newsline", "The Rain Report", and "Space Shuttle Audio", why should broadcasters have to keep records?

Again, we see the hypocritical regulations at the FCC being allowed to generate revenue for radio operations that have not harmed anyone. This crack down highlights the need to return the airwaves to the people without archaic licensing requirements for broadcasting.

With the June 3rd Broadcast Board Of Governors conference coming up, one can only come to the conclusion that the FCC is showboating so as to make it appear that they still have a relevant place in American society. WHO CARES if someone is broadcasting without a license at whatever power level IF no broadcast in progress is interfered with and if no one is interfering with land navigation, amateur radio, aeronautical frequencies, public safety bands, satellite services, wildlife tracking freqs, and other important experimental service communications bands?

These are not the only bands that pirates should stay out of, but you get the picture. The FCC is simply enforcing more - or - less, the "anti-competition" stance that holds BIG BUSINESS in protective hands when big business should be told to fend for themselves since they can afford it!

Re-write the broadcast regs, FCC! STOP picking on pirates who don't harm anyone, and go after those who interfere with truly critical communications!

Another program in the series from PCJ looking at new and old radios that are still on the market. This review is on the TECSUN S2000 (aka the Grundig Satellite 750).The AUTO PLAY ISSUE HAS BEEN FIXED.

Friday, May 20, 2011

The below text is quoted from the Sace Weather Prediction Center at http://www.spaceweather.gov/wwv

On 06 September 2011 the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) will discontinue the broadcast of its synoptic Geo-Alert products on the WWV and WWVH radio stations starting with the 12 UTC products. These products are operationally available via the following two other mechanisms:

SWPC's Product Subscription Service at https://pss.swpc.noaa.gov. The WWV product can be found under the "Forecast and Summaries" section.

Randy Poffo, AKA "Macho Man", "Macho King" Randy Savage was not a radio personality, he was not a licensed radio amateur, never partook of anything radio that we are aware of, but he WAS a good friend of the Owner / Chief Editor of Shortwave America.

Randy Poffo was a man of honor and class. Going between face and heel, Intercontinental Champion, and WWE Heavyweight Champ, behind the scenes...Randy was a down to earth person who honored his family first. Randy was a caring, giving, man. As a wrestler and showman, Randy was best known for his high flying acrobatics.

Behind closed doors, Randy Poffo knew how to have fun and could make almost anyone laugh. He was also very intelligent. A conversation with Randy was always a memorable time. Shortwave America wishes to give condolences to the Poffo family, as well as Randy's past and present colleagues who were so treasured by him.

A FACEBOOK MEMORIAL GROUP has gone viral today over the past many hours. No information is available at this time regarding funeral/public memorial services for Randy.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Since the inception of Shortwave America, one of the purposes was to cover VHF and UHF frequencies from a practical perspective while presenting a useful technical reference. After all this time, the best choice seems to be someone who spends a great deal of time on Railroad and Marine monitoring.

In thinking about this at great length, why should Aviation communications be left out?

Andy was first licensed on Jan 21st, 1997 as a Technician while he was a freshman in High School. In fall of 99, Andy earned his General Class License with a 13wpm code test, and finally got his Extra Class license in the early 2000s. Andy has traveled the world extensively and has practiced radio monitoring in his travels since his early twenties.

Since around 1996 or 1997, he has been an upstanding member of the North Shore Radio Club (NS9RC). Besides radio monitoring, Andy is an avid DX chaser and makes HF contacts almost daily. Andy will be using his vast knowledge at Shortwave America to specialize in writing about Railroad, Marine, and some Aeronautical communications.

Besides radio communications, Andy brings to the table a working knowledge of world culture learned from his real life experiences, also fostered by his love of radio. When Andy isn't chasing DX or monitoring, he is oftentimes reading about different radio technical subjects and using his radio equipment to help him observe what he reads about. In that sense, Andy is also an experimenter who makes useful observations.

Shortwave America welcomes Andy, and we hope you will welcome him warmly as well.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Well PCJ will have a contest to make this happen. We are giving away 3 Tecsun DR920, and a grand prize a new Sangean ATS909X.

How will this work?

1. Beginning on the May 28th edition with Media Network Plus there will be a small that id asking a question will be played in the show (very easy question). This ID will also be used on Happy Station, Nash Holos, & Switzerland In Sound. All you need to do is answer the question and give details on where you heard the show either FM/AM/Shortwave or internet.

2. There are 3 Tecsun DR920 that we are giving away in June, July and August. Everyone that enters will be entered into the draw to win a new Sangean ATS909X. Winners will be announced in Media Network Plus. The grand prize of the Sangean ATS909 will be announced in the September edition on Media Network Plus.

3. Just make sure when you enter that you also give some program details.

4. Those who enter by snail mail will also receive a small thank you gift. The address to enter for winning one of the 3 Tecsun's and the final grand prize is: PCJ Radio, 8FL, No. 47, Lane 31, Section 1, Sanmin Road, Banciao, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC 22070 Or email: ats909x@gmail.com

Monday, May 16, 2011

Unfortunately, some places are not so much better than others; especially when people have to resort to dumpster diving. WATCH IT HERE.

Apparently this is a crime in the Netherlands, even though the food was discarded and from a logical point of view, cannot realistically be said to belong to anyone. Hopefully a time will come when no one will have to do this.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Over the last twenty four hours, this publication has reached a total count of just over twenty thousand unique readers! Thank you to everyone over the last two years who have chosen to be a part of Shortwave America! The 2011 developments spoken of months ago are being implemented although slowly.

Shortwave America has some really awesome plans for the future to come. These plans will be announced once they are cemented into place. Shortwave America would like to say a word of thanks to the following people who have been integral to the growth of this publication: The readers, Keith Perron & Paulette MacQuarrie, WRN, everyone who links over here, and all of the various people who give this place good mentions or featured headlines at different discussion groups & their moderators, and RadioReference for helping out with some items here and there.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

As promised, the nationwide Amateur Radio Listening Gallery is now up and functional! Also as promised, it was posted with some work remaining to be done so readers can see what the offerings will be and get some idea what is being done to have the most useful information in one central place.

Go ahead! Please, enjoy this newest feature of Shortwave America and feel free to leave behind any of your thoughts.

It has recently been discovered that "The Poet" has a blog for TCS (The Crystal Ship). On it, Poet gives us an honest peek into why he does pirate radio. Confessions Of A Pirate is perhaps the BEST statement made against the powers that be in American radio, perhaps even worldwide since all of these people hold each others hands to begin with.

The first TCS blog post was on 7 August, 2010 and the newest post came on 7 May 2011. From all appearances at this present time in pirate radio, a war seems to be occurring between TCS and Radio Jamba International. Shortwave America will contact The Poet and ask for an interview on what The Crystal Ship is focusing on today, future plans, and the war with Radio Jamba.

After looking at the blog for Radio Jamba, it needs to be said that the ability to spell correctly, use good grammar, and construct sentences properly is paramount to running a publication just for starters. Posting your own SINPO reports from FRN is not good practice! Do something original! Seriously, Jamba! Here's a screenshot of Jamba's lameness:

BTW, that bowling alley sign photo, if real, is a great way for the FCC to find you....universally stupid! Why? Because it tells them about the area your sigs are possibly coming out of. We doubt you know anything about using photoshop. Shortwave America won't even give the link to Jamba for fear of insulting the entire radio community. Another thing Jamba, clean up your signal! Audio doesn't count when the signal is so bad!

Poet, if you're reading this....you run a great station! Keep up the good work! Salute!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

VK1OD and some others have taken to other means in order that they may freely speak out. That is to say they have left Fred Lloyd's QRZ.com. A relatively new thread at the reference speaks about continued management problems, favoritism, cronyism, and general double standards at the garbage fill known as the zed.

The linked post at the reference is quite accurate about what goes on over there and is quite honest about the fact being that only the callsign look-up is worth anything there. Anyone who has been around for any period of time knows that this is not anything new. What goes on at the zed is a circus of the worst sort for Fred and his friends who are no better than the people who occupy certain portions of bandwidth across the HF bands.

Truth be told, Fred doesn't care at all what happens so long as people keep buying ad space from him. QRZ is a business and the folks there are simply filling empty space, giving him the best thing he can have...FREE advertising! When you use Fred's site, and you go tell others about it, you give him free business! Free for him, but advertisers pay.

The same products marketed by Fred can be found on the net for free and also compiled privately by way of simple copy & paste onto a word doc if someone thinks the information is useful enough to them. There are a million callsign look up's out here...why use Fred's? You get the same information you would get there! Heck, if you wanna see geo coordinates you can go use Google Earth! You can use any other geo location service out here, as many of them are free.

Fred Lloyd has perpetrated the best laid scam ever! Don't you get it? You who hang around the zed are his puppets and he laughs at you! He gets rich while all of you create the downfall of the amateur radio community! The public is watching! Fred has succeeded in making fools of all of you.

The zed has archives for the public to see. Anyone can at anytime, go see the current state of the zed as well as the archives! Some of you may say, "but the zed has a logbook feature"...so what? There are logbooks out there for free or for minimal cost! I have yet to see a logbook that has an extravagant cost attached to it!

If you need help with learning something or using a new piece of equipment...there are amateur radio clubs all over the country! Go congregate with them and make some friends! Most amateur clubs are more than willing to give help to a fellow amateur with the understanding that the person give help to others when they know enough.

All the things provided at the zed can be found elsewhere and you don't risk getting flamed, insulted, harassed, bullied, or banned! Shortwave America readers will notice that there is NO LINK here to the zed...there is a reason for that! QRZ is not a family friendly site and the readers here do not want to click on a link that may provide objectionable content.

The zed is a horrible example of how amateur radio ops act in the real world for the most part.

Here's K1OIK's video which was really about QRZ more than amateur ops in the real world with a few exceptions. Please note that there may be some rude, objectionable remarks made at the video and feel free to ignore the comments section if you need to....Burt does! In real life, Burt is an intelligent man who is kind and a lot of fun to be around. Shortwave America presents this without any endorsement in one direction or another.

However, it seems that there is some bad news attached to this: (Quote from Southgate)

"Recently, RNW management announced that it intended to speed up the process of replacing shortwave with other distribution platforms, including the closure of its relay stations in Bonaire and Madagascar. The Bonaire facility is scheduled for closure at the end of October 2012, but no closure date has yet been decided for Madagascar."

Of all the stations in the world, no one would have ever guessed that Radio Netherlands would even consider losing shortwave in favor of other media platforms. Thank God PCJ Radio has decided to keep shortwave radio alive with the new world service! If stations keep taking their shortwave operations off the air, all there will be left are pirates and although pirates aren't all bad, they risk getting raided by their respective broadcast licensing authorities if they operate too regularly as to become predictable.

Beginning May 15th, 2011 Foundation For Democracy Of Vietnam will broadcast a daily program from 1430UTC to 1500UTC on 1503khz. This time slot had been used by the BBC Vietnamese Service until it was vacated because of the restructuring measures that have been taken by the BBC World Service. The 600kw transmitter and directional antenna azimuth of 247deg is located in Fangliao, South Taiwan (Pingtung County). This site is also used by Radio France International in Khmer, Radio Chan Troi Moi (New Horizon Radio) in Vietnamese, Family Radio in Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese and English.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Those of us who are TRAINED severe weather / tornado spotters know that you NEVER get up cloe and personal with a Tornado. We also know that our training tells us that when observing a tornado, we need to be at the opposite angle from where the tornado is moving, so we can SAFELY help the National Weather Service to get advance warning out and report on the behavior of the tornado.

The two goofballs you are about to see in this video make us all look bad, they get it all wrong and almost end up dead. The two not-so-bright people you will see in this video got themselves caught in the recent deadly tornado outbreak in Alabama. They have the radio on and the station is warning everyone listening to seek shelter immediately, and they do exactly the opposite!

What does this have to do with radio, you ask? These Darwin Award contestants have no communication with anyone! IF they were properly trained and had their amateur radio licenses, they would be able to actually be of some help to the community and possibly help save a few lives! In scenarios like this, communication with your local NWS and Emergency Management Agency makes all the difference!